hah. mine sits on the right edge of my desk, and is connected to a dedicated 24" wall mount monitor, right next to the dual screens on my main PC workstation. ok, the miniPC now lives where those old HK speakers were temporarily. that wall mount monitor has HDMI audio
Recently installed a NVR5216-16P-4KS2E with a HFW5241E-Z12E and three from the T5442 family of cams (thanks Andy!). Cannot speak (yet) to the experience as it is my first ever NVR, however I am and getting things dialed-in as time allows (thanks IPCT!). Chose an NVR over BI as it is the best "fit" (figurative) at the location and it best suits the end user. Simplicity overall -- operation, access, etc
mIRC. You old timer
I think nowadays, folks have migrated over to...um....er....Discord
I mostly lurk in a couple sql database channels, pfsense, and freenas aka truenas.mIRC. You old timer
That's why I'm more inclined to build. Expensive yes, although in some jurisdictions such as the UK where 2nd hand are rips offs, not so much so. However, you know what you're getting. No getting a pc that was used twice but really ran continuosuly for 4 years before sale. No pc's with problems, illegal content. No failing components that can't be reaplced because they're proprietory and unique. Building is expensive, but when it gets tired an old, you can swap a psu or failing ram, or drive, or maybe a MB and CPU. There's no need to junk the whole thing for something else of unknown origin, condition or use. There's also no compromises, OEM's cut corners to save costs. Apart from stirpped down unique parts, you often get cheap cables, fans, heatsinks, case and a whole host of other minor items that could affect either the speed or thermal performance of your system. A self built means a £2 cheap chinese fan becomes a £6 noctua. Not a lot of difference in price, but performance. A £0.50 cable becomes a £5 Belkin etc. Self building gives total quality control. You might spend an extra £20-30 on the little things, but sometimes it makes all the difference.
the UK is the shithole of used junk hardware...
Folks from IPCT: buying directly from Andy, having the cheapest price possible.
I have a similar neighbor although he's even less tech-savvy than yours. The last thing I want is to become his tech support guy. Good luck!
I'm in the same boat as OP, needing to "help" a friend get a security system set up but he's not tech savy. I learnt allot in this thread - thanks.
That's where an ultra wide screen monitor and 
